The present invention relates to a safety latch device for a folding chair adapted for use by children and particularly to a latch device for a folding chair that can prevent latch means from unfastening when a child is seated on the chair to avoid accidental folding of the chair.
Folding chairs are chairs with turnable and foldable frames adapted to compact the size of the chairs for storage. They may be folded when not in use to reduce storage space, and may be unfolded for use when desired.
However, the turning and folding function of such folding chairs can cause the chairs to tumble accidentally due to unbalanced loading during use. Hence safety and stability have become very important issues for folding chairs. This is especially true for folding chairs designed for use by children. As children are usually very active, guarding mechanisms and measures for folding chairs should be more thorough and comprehensive.
In the known prior art, the main structure of a folding chair generally includes a seat bracket, backrest bracket, and front and rear legs that can perform relative and pivotal turning and folding movements. Such a prior art chair includes a latch device located between the rear legs and backrest bracket. In order to prevent children from injury, applicant has disclosed a design in U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,848, granted Oct. 8, 1991, entitled: xe2x80x9cFolding Chair Frame Tube Position Devicexe2x80x9d. Its structure includes a slide unit coupled to the rear leg and a positioning element having two ends pivotally and respectively engaged with the rear leg and backrest bracket. The slide unit and the positioning element have respectively a harness trough and a harness section located at corresponding positions to engage with each other. When the folding chair is extended, the slide unit may be moved downwards to contact the positioning element, and the harness trough and the harness section may form a latched condition to make the folding chair steady in the extended condition without abrupt tumbling or folding.
However, such a folding chair still has potential risks when seating a child. As any child can easily move the slide unit away from the positioning element to disengage the harness section from the harness trough, and as a result, the folding chair can become loosened and unfastened. A slight movement of a person sifting on such chair could cause the seat bracket, backrest bracket and front and rear legs to turn and fold because of unbalanced loading and cause accidents.
The primary object of the invention is to resolve aforesaid disadvantages. The invention aims to provide a safety latch device for a folding chair that will not be unfastened easily under the latched condition to prevent a child sitting thereon from falling down.
To achieve the foregoing objects, the safety latch device of the invention mainly includes an anchor unit and a slide unit. The anchor unit has two ends pivotally engaging with the rear leg and the backrest bracket. The pivotal end on the backrest bracket has a harness section to allow the folding chair extending and positioning. The harness section has an extended latch finger. The slide unit is coupled to the rear leg and has a harness trough corresponding to and engageable with the harness section. The harness trough has a latch opening to allow the latch finger passing to form a latched relationship. On the exterior of the slide unit, there is a release opening for releasing the latched relationship between the latch finger and latch opening mentioned above. Hence the chair may be prevented from incidental tumbling and hurting the child sitting thereon.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.